Mask
by arcanioque
Summary: ‘Uchiha sensei, why do you always have that mask on your face and that Konoha headband covering an eye?’ Uchiha Sasuke’s pupils have always wondered about those little details.


Mask

_**kakashi, sasuke**_

_**no pairings.**_

_feat. lee._

_set 5 years into the series._

_AU-ish, because..erh, I imagined Sasuke returning to Konoha after the run of Naruto series. bwahaha. and uh, by reading on, you'll get what I mean about it being AU-ish. _

'_Uchiha-sensei, why do you always have that mask on your face and that Konoha headband covering an eye?' Uchiha Sasuke's pupils have always wondered about those little details. _

-

The pupils of Team 7 breathed heavily, and watched as the male figure they had fought earlier on in the midst of completing their C-Class mission fall onto the ground before them in a heap. One of them turned around with a glazed look to his eyes, and the only girl on the team clasped her hands by her chin, her eyes shining.

"Uchiha-sensei, SUGOI!!!" Her girlish voice swoon over the physical abilities of her dark-haired sensei.

The same pupil who still had the surprised look in his eyes bounced on his feet. "Uchiha-sensei! What was that move you did earlier on!? It was so cool, could you teach me sometimes? What's the name, what's it called?" He said enthusiastically.

The last pupil of the team, the nerd-ish looking one with thick-rimmed glasses scratched his head. "Anou-sa, don't you think you're being too hyper again?"

Uchiha Sasuke took a few steps towards his team, before raking his hand through his hair. With a quiet, calm look to his eyes, he said with a confident air the word, "Chidori."

"Nani, nani, nani? Chidori, you say? SUGOI!" So hyper and enthusiastic was the kid who had said it, that he had missed out the strange look that had passed by his Sensei's face. The young female, though, did not, and proceeded to ask her Sensei why he had a 'look of funny eyes'.

Sasuke shook his head, knelt down, and rested his hand on the noisiest kid of the lot. "You still have a lot to learn before I'll be willing to teach you that move."

The noisy one flashed a thumbs-up.

"Demo, demo, Uchiha-sensei," the girl was speaking up again, probably affected by her friend's hyperactiveness as well, "why do you always wear that mask for?" To emphasize on her point, she brought an index finger to aim at Sasuke's face.

Indeed, a black cloth veiled the bottom half of his face, revealing only an eye, where his Konoha headband fell in a slanted position over his other.

The bespectacled kid nodded vigoriously. He had always thought his Sensei looked awfully mysterious. Did something happened to the other eye? A scar to his jaw, that's why he had to mask his face and eye? Or was he...he...a pirate!!!

"AHAHAHA!" The noisy kid laughed, touching his hands to his belly. "I know why, Uchiha-sensei!"

Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow, a hand sliding into his pocket. His eyes were questioning.

"You have...you have FAT LIPS!"

The rest of team 7 sweatdropped.

Sasuke snorted.

"A BIG THICK SCAR!"

The said teacher finally sank in his other hand into his pocket, and slid out a orange-covered book. His pupils immediately recognized it as Icha Icha Paradise, and the nerdy kid scrunched up his face.

"Ah, Sensei, you shouldn't read such books."

To which Sasuke only offered a what-do-you-know-anou-gaki look. "And how old are you to tell me that?" He dived a hand into the dishevelled hair of his nerd kid student, ruffling it. Sasuke knew that gesture always annoyed any of his student.

"Anou-sa, anou-sa!" The noisy kid was being noisy again. "So why do you wear a mask?"

Uchiha Sasuke turned on his feet, and walked on again. His students had to chase him from behind, as their sensei dismissed them casually by focusing his attention all on the orange-covered book in his one arm.

"Oi! Uchiha-sensei!" All three of them yelled.

Then Sasuke stopped in his feet so suddenly, that his three pupils, respectively lining up one by one behind each other, collided into his back. They grabbed their foreheads, muttering, "Ittai ittai ittai!"

Silence hung like a cutting knife, as all three sets of eyes stared up to their teacher's back.

Had Uchiha-sensei wanted to say something?

"My Sensei used to wear a mask, too," was Sasuke's plain reply.

And he left his three students with rounded eyes, as he proceeded in his nonchalant stroll towards the nearest ramen stall, one hand in his pocket, other holding up Icha Icha Paradise.

"Anou, Uchiha-sensei!!!" The noisy kid was screeching, catching up to his sensei at lightning speed.

"Nani yo?" Sasuke shot a I-couldn't-care-less look at his student, who had grown eagerly excited at something.

"So I'm guessing your Sensei likes to read this book, too! And has a bad habit of being late going on his walks of life around Konoha! And likes to hide an eye behind his Konoha band! And likes to pat his students on the head and treat them like kids! And uses Chidori as his secret, most special ninja jutsu! Is that it? Is that it?" The noisy kid ranted on and on.

Sasuke's eyes never left Icha Icha Paradise, but an expression had passed through them as they promptly lost their focus upon the pages.

"Ne, Uchiha-sensei?? Ne, ne, ne?" He pressed on.

Uchiha Sasuke flipped a page, and took a step forward.

"Ah." He replied simply, and walked off.

-

Sasuke would have kicked the tombstone if it wasn't that of his late Sensei's. He mustered his best death-glare at it, before shrugging his shoulders.

"You idiot, why do you have to go die? And all you left behind was that Pakkun dog of yours and a thick pile of Icha Icha Paradise." Sasuke scoffed to no one in particular. "So now my students think I'm an animal lover and a pervert jounin, just like you were. Like it's my fault that I happen to pick up your bad habit of being late after you've influenced me for Hokage-sama knows how long." Sasuke then shot a look to the sky, frowning, his lips set in a thin line. "Wait, why am I using that dobe's name in vain?"

Plopping down swiftly beside the Hatake tombstone, Sasuke bit off the side of the eggplant he had in his mouth, before dipping it in salt and miso soup. All this while, he flipped another page of Icha Icha Paradise, until he glared at the tombstone again.

"What? Jealous that you can't eat and read while I can? Your fault for dying."

Then as quickly, Uchiha Sasuke had shot a look to the sky, his eyes searching...searching, until someone interrupted his thoughts.

"YOSH!!! UCHIHA SASUKE, MY ETERNAL RIVAL SINCE THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH AND THE BLOSSOMING OF FLOWERS AND EVERYTHING PLEASANT AND BEAUTIFUL ON EARTH!" Rock Lee's voice screeched in Sasuke's ears as the former punched his fist up in the air and performed Nice Guy Pose #123 with a glint to his pearly white teeth.

Sasuke made a face, and chose to ignore the person who had self-proclaimed an eternal rivalry with the Uchiha male since Hokage-sama knows how long.

"So what's it gonna be today? The score is 50-49 for now!" PING! goes Rock Lee's teeth, as he nudged Uchiha Sasuke. "We've challenged against each other about almost everything already!"

"...How about who shuts up first wins?" Sasuke retorted smoothly.

"YOSH!!!" Lee was about to carry that out, before he realized it was a trick. He pulled a face, his fuzzy eyebrows quivering with overpassionate emotions, "How can you say that, my eternal rival! It's a torture on my poor soul, and represses my exploding youth that has blossomed since--"

"Hn."

"GWAHHH! Why do you always have to have such a revolutionary attitude to my statements!?" Rock Lee was about to go on and on, when he stopped abruptly, catching the look Sasuke was giving the tombstone before him.

"Anou..." Lee's eyes sought the Uchiha's. "It's been quite a while now."

Sasuke nodded. He decided not to glare his self-proclaimed eternal rival just to scare him away. Lest he suddenly decided to go crazy by doing 500 laps round Konoha for no apparent reason. That, Lee was most certainly capable of, Sasuke knew.

"Demo, we carried out what our Senseis would have wanted, ne?" Rock Lee gushed, his eyes shining with fire, "We, as their number one subordinates and prized pupils, continued and succeeded their eternal rivalry!! YOSH!!!"

Sasuke's one eye (the other hidden by the Konoha band) had narrowed itself at Lee. "YOUR Sensei, not mine. YOUR self-proclaimed eternal rivalry, not mine."

"GWAH!!! Yet another revolutionary, cool attitude, Sasuke! I'm so proud of you!"

Sasuke sighed, and swallowed the last of his eggplant. He stood up, and cast a final glance at his Sensei's tombstone.

He was about to walk away, when he noticed an expression passing across his rival's eyes. He halted in his tracks, questioning Lee with his eye.

"I guess you're keeping that mask on your face for a long time, ne, rival?" Was Lee's simple question in all honesty.

Sasuke slid a hand in his pocket, and flipped out Icha Icha Paradise with his other to where he had last stopped. Before he strode off, his words were:

"And I guess you're keeping that bowled, uncool hairstyle of yours as well, _rival_."

Rock Lee did not have to turn around to know his eternal rival had a small smile on his face.

**owari**

a/n:

that's why I said it was AU-ish, simply because a) Kakashi died b) Lee and Sasuke formed an eternal rivalry between them c) you-know-who became Hokage - WHO ELSE, you DOBE! (j/k j/k ehehehe) d) erh...sasuke became a jounin sensei?

ahahaha. but a little pretention never hurts. that's one of my number one beliefs.

Yosh.

apologies for OOC-ness, misplaced details, AU-ishness, impossibilities, etc. etc. the list goes on.

and i didn't even mention Kakashi's name once in the fic! okay, maybe except for his last name bit. yooosh. anou-sa, you knew it _was _kakashi right? ahaha. oh, and in case you're wondering about sasuke eating eggplants and all, it's mentioned that that was kakashi's favorite food. XD there you go.

REVIEW!!!!! or I'll unleash Chidori on you. (ignore the fact that Sasuke is the only successor of Kakashi's Chidori...)


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